Why

You have one channel (web form), low volume, and a tiny team that already talks to each other every day. The risk in a custom-build business isn't that leads get lost in a database — it's that a high-value RFQ sits unanswered for two days while you're on-site at a stand. You need fast response and one visible list, not pipeline software.

What you actually need

1. Google Sheets (free) — one shared sheet: date, company, event/show, stand size, budget if given, owner, next action, status. That's the whole CRM for your volume.
2. Instant web-form notifications (free) — your form (Typeform, WPForms, Google Forms, whatever it is) should email AND WhatsApp the owner the second a lead hits. First reply within an hour wins exhibition work.
3. Habit: a 15-minute Monday stand-up on the sheet. Anything older than 7 days with no next action gets killed or chased that day.

Do this today

Open the inbox folder where web-form leads land. Make a Google Sheet with the columns above, paste in every inquiry from the last 60 days, and assign each open one to a named person with a date next to it. Share the sheet with the other 1–2 people. Done before lunch.

What to ignore

Salesforce is built for large orgs with dedicated admins — for an SMB under 10 people or under a few hundred leads a month it's massively over-built and costly. HubSpot's paid Sales Hub is for teams that have genuinely outgrown free and need sequences and forecasting — you'll be upsold there long before you hit real limits. Zoho Bigin is fine and ME-supported, but at your volume it's still solving a problem you don't have yet.

What doing nothing costs you

One slow reply to an RFQ for a 50 sqm custom stand can be the quarter. You don't need software to fix that — you need a notification and a named owner.

Where this leaves you

You get: one place every lead lives, a same-hour response trigger on the channel that matters, and a weekly habit that surfaces stalled deals. Three things, zero subscriptions. The unsexy truth is that the exhibition builders who win don't have better CRMs — they pick up the phone first.

When to revisit this

When you cross ~30 inquiries a month, or when two people start working the same lead without knowing it — that's the day a real pipeline tool earns its seat.

(Priced/assumed in the UAE context from your IP — say if you're elsewhere.)